TITLE: “Celeb”
LENGTH: 30 seconds.
AIRING: Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia, and Wisconsin.
SCRIPT: Announcer: “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But, is he ready to lead? With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling. And, says he’ll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes, more foreign oil, that’s the real Obama.
McCain: “I’m John McCain and I approved this message.”
KEY IMAGES: Footage of Obama and crowds from his speech in Berlin, when an estimated 200,000 people showed up to hear him speak. As the announcer says “he’s the biggest celebrity in the world,” shots of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton appear on the screen. The screen goes dark. A photo of Obama appears with the script: “Higher TAXES” followed by “More FOREIGN OIL.”
ANALYSIS: The latest in a string of negative McCain ads, this commercial seeks to sink two balls with one cue shot. It attacks Obama over energy while disparaging Obama’s popularity. The comparison to two lightweight personalities like Spears and Hilton is hardly subtle. “Just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you’re ready to lead,” campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters in a conference call about the ad.
This is the second McCain ad that tries to turn Obama’s popularity on its head. A previous ad asked “Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?” as a rising crescendo, from an Obama campaign event, chants: “Obama, Obama, Obama!”
The McCain campaign is betting the television audience will look past the images and sounds of Obama’s prominence and concentrate on the underlying criticism. The tactic has a jiujitsu quality of trying to use an opponent’s strength against him.
On substance, the ad leaves out key information.
Obama has opposed lifting a moratorium that blocks energy development in 80 percent of the country’s coastal waters. He proposes that oil companies be required to use existing drilling leases or pay a fee. McCain supported the moratorium in the past, but last month called for lifting it. Both Obama and McCain oppose oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The McCain campaign says the ad’s claim that Obama would raise taxes on electricity is based on an interview Obama gave the San Antonio Express-News in February. He was asked whether he would help finance education by taxing some new energy sources, such as wind.
“Well, that’s clean energy, and we want to drive down the cost of that, not raise it.” Obama replied. “We need to give them subsidies so they can start developing that. What we ought to tax is dirty energy, like coal and, to a lesser extent, natural gas.”
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said the reference to taxing “dirty energy” reflects Obama’s support for a cap-and-trade system to combat global warming, though Obama has never directly suggested such a plan would be a tax.
In fact, both McCain and Obama support the same kind of cap-and-trade curbs carbon-fuel emissions. Industries would be given emission targets; those who come in under their limit could sell their surplus polluting capacity to companies unable to meet their target. Critics claim that’s tantamount to a tax on coal-powered industries.
Obama also wants to end oil and gas industry tax breaks and proposes a windfall profits tax on the large oil companies.
Vietor said McCain has been criticized for airing misleading and negative ads. “Or, as some might say, ‘Oops! He did it again.'” Vietor said.
“The American people have a real choice — between Obama’s plan to provide tax rebates to American families while creating a renewable energy economy in America that frees us from our dependence on foreign oil, and Sen. McCain’s plan to continue the same failed energy policies by handing out nearly $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies while investing almost nothing in the new energy sources that represent our future.”
The McCain campaign said the ad would appear in the 11 states where he has been running much of his advertising.
— Analysis by Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn
On the Web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHXYsw_ZDXg
